Londonderry gourmet deli turns to NYC firm for business loan

When longtime Londonderry eatery the Wrap Shak needed money to purchase some equipment, securing a business loan was easier said than done.

"All those lines of credit that were available when I'd first opened had dried up," restaurant owner Craig Farrington said. "It became nonexistent.

Farrington, who opened the gourmet deli and sandwich shop about 6½ years ago, said the option of using credit advances to purchase the things he needed, including a new meat slicing machine, proved too costly and too unreliable. He turned to a New York capital financing company.

"With a credit advance, you might be paying back $1,500 one day, and the next day you're paying back $45," Farrington said. "It makes it pretty difficult to budget it all out."

Fortunately for Farrington, help arrived in the form of the New York City-based Capital Access Network Inc. (CAN).

Chief Executive Officer Daniel DeMeo said his firm was able to offer Farrington a fixed-term loan, with fixed payments to make monthly budgeting easier.

"He turned out to be one very happy customer," DeMeo said during a phone interview.

Since its inception in 1998, CAN has assisted more than 300,000 businesses in meeting their financial needs and distributed more than $3 billion in capital, Senior Vice President Diane Naczi said.

Over the past year alone, the company has extended $5 million in assistance to small businesses in the Granite State, helping more than 150 business owners.

CAN provides services throughout the nation and has worked with 750 different types of industries, company officials said.

Naczi noted that oftentimes a small business shows a steady revenue stream of credit sales, but is still denied for loans by traditional banks, which tend to make their lending decisions based on FICA credit scores and previous tax return documents.

"Banks don't always understand the concept of business performance," she said.

CAN offers businesses various options, ranging from loans to cash advances, based on the business's sales history. "It's a very unique option that some business owners prefer because it's done according to actual cash flow," Naczi said.

DeMeo said many small- business owners are challenged in the current business climate and noted that approximately three-quarters of them are turned down by traditional banks.

"So there's a great level of opportunities for people like us to help find solutions," he said. "A company such as ours makes decisions based on data, history and experience."

He said the 2008 economic downturn "definitely contributed to what was already a very difficult environment for small businesses to flourish." CAN specializes in assisting with fund allotments of $150,000 or lower.

Farrington said his experiences with the firm have left him "with an additional level of comfort."

"The underwriting wasn't overly strenuous … basically they just sent people in to make sure I had the business I said I had," Farrington said. "Everything is up front, and there were no surprises. It was more pleasant and less expensive."

"You don't survive in this industry without perseverance," he said. "And there's always something you can do about something."